Razer Tarantula Review

The highly anticipated keyboard from Razer has long made its debut. Programmable macros, unsurpassed aesthetics, now we can finally dissect its every weapon to see if it can stand up to the demands of hardcore gamers who seek the very best and nothing less.

Category: Keyboards
Manufacturer: Razer
Product: Tarantula
Gallery: Click Here
Price: $99.99

Introduction

Razer is
known as the big boy around the block when it comes to high end
computer peripherals. Just stroll into any major tournament around the
globe and you’ll know it. Unlike others, Razer offers a product catered
specifically towards gamers, so it must meet the high demands of
individuals looking for the very best in hardware today. We emphasize
with peripheral reviews that personal preference plays a large role in
determining the final score. That being said, the goal of this review
is to supply you with as much information about the personal experience
when using the keyboard in both desktop and gaming applications as
possible.

Specifications

Anti-Ghosting Capability: Unlimited Simultaneous Key Presses

Optimized Hyperesponse™ Gaming Keytop with Replaceable Keys: For Reduced Key Latency and Maximum Response

32KB Onboard Memory Powered By Razer Synapse™ with 5 Onboard Profiles

100 Profile Capability with Razer Tarantula Drivers Installed

10 Programmable Gaming Macro Keys

10 Hot Keys (With Icons) To Add On Keytop

Plug and Play Without Driver

Battledock™ Function

On-The-Fly Game Detection: Activated Automatically Once Program/Game Is Loaded

Normal Keys Can Be Programmed to Act As Other Keystrokes

Earphone-Out, Microphone-In Jacks

Fully Interchangeable and Programmable Keys

Convenient Media Keys Allows Media Program Control

Gold Plated USB Connectors with Covers

Test Setup

Hardware Configuration

Case: Antec Solo

Power Supply: Antec TruePower Trio 650

Motherboard: DFI Lanparty 939 nForce4 Ultra

Processor: AMD Opteron 146 2.0GHz (Overclocked 2800 MHz)

Hard Drive: Western Digital 100GB IDE HDD

Hard Drive: Seagate 300GB SATA HDD

Hard Drive: Maxtor 250GB SATA HDD

Video: eVGA GeForce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express

Memory: OCZ Dual-Channel PC4000 Gold Edition VX 1024MB

Optical: Lite-On 8x DVD+/-RW

Audio: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS

Cooling: Zalman CNPS9500 CPU Cooler

Cooling: Zalman VF900-Cu GPU Cooler

Cooling: ThermalRight HR-05 Chipset Heatsink

Media: Mitsumi 7-in-1 Media Drive

Display: Samsung Syncmaster 710N 17″ LCD

Surface: Engineered Wood Desk

Software Configuration

Motherboard BIOS: NF4LD406 BIOS Update Revision A (2006/04/06)

Chipset: nForce4 Series AMD Windows Vista 32-Bit v15.00 WHQL Certified

Operating System: Windows XP Professional With Service Pack 2 & Windows Vista Business Edition

Video Driver:
NVIDIA ForceWare Version 91.47 32-bit WHQL Certified (November 2 14
release) / NVIDIA ForceWare Release 100 v100.65 32-bit WHQL Certified

Audio Driver: Creative SB Audigy 2 Series Driver 02.08.0004 / Creative SB Audigy 2 Series Vista Beta Driver 2.12.0001

Driver: Razer Tarantula Driver v2.01b

Test Game: Counter-Strike 1.6

Test Game: Battlefield 2 v1.41

Test Game: Counter-Strike: Source

Test Game: Quake 4 v1.4 Beta

Test Game: Need for Speed: Carbon v1.3

{mospagebreak title=First Impressions}

As
usual, the attention to detail on Razer packaging is second to none.
Plastered with various awards and praise, the Razer Tarantula has
without a doubt an extremely stylistic keyboard package. Features such
as the Anti-Ghosting Capability and up to one hundred customizable
profiles and programmable hot keys sound like a gamers dream, but we’ll
put their usefulness to the test later. For now as we cycle ’round back
you can read all the usual specifications and features in ten different
languages, a nice touch showing just how global Razer is. Beside the
additional features and CPL logo is a snapshot of Meng Yeng, also known
as ‘Rocketboy’, and Harley Orwell from Fnatic. Not that it should
really matter since any peripheral you use should be your own personal
educated preference, not someone else’s.

Inside
the box is your regular assortment of driver disc, quick start guide,
replacement keys and certificate of authenticity. Beyond the black
cardboard is the fabled Tarantula. Looks are subjective, but I thought
the glossy midnight black exterior looked very sharp. Unfortunately the
impeccable exterior will only last you a few seconds when you begin
using the keyboard. The oil from human skin shows up rather easily
along with dust. You’ll notice I only have one clean picture of the
Razer Tarantula that has absolutely no dust, this is because it was
taken within seconds of removing the keyboard from its packaging with
surgical gloves. You may want to pick up a quality microfiber cloth to
clean your Razer Tarantula if you enjoy keeping your gear clean. Good
luck too, because you’ll be wiping it every other second.

Note
the dual USB ports, microphone and headphone jacks built into the
keyboard. Although I found it useful and comfortable to have my headset
plugged in at such a close proximity, my USB flash drive would not work
correctly. I was greeted with an error message stating the hub does not
have enough power available to operate the device. This is
disappointing but not unexpected. The good news is that my A4Tech
X-777F gaming mouse worked perfectly when connected. It would have been
better if anything I connected worked because let’s be honest; how
often do most individuals unplug their mouse and keyboard compared to
their USB flash drive? Even if you are at a tournament away from home -
if you were able to connect the dual USB connectors the Razer Tarantula
has built-in then you should be able to have enough slack to connect
your mouse directly as well. Perhaps if the tournament computers are
setup in an unorthodox manner would you prefer to connect your mouse to
the Razer Tarantula, but I tend to think this is the exception rather
than the norm.

Once everything was unpacked I placed the Razer Tarantula on my desk
and noticed that the four rubber rectangular feet did an amazing job of
keeping the keyboard suctioned to the desk. It would certainly take an
excessive amount of force to move the keyboard while playing a game,
even in heated battle. For
the price of the keyboard I expected more rubber feet compared to the
original Saitek Eclipse, which has a total of ten rubber feet including
the wrist rest. If you sit back and think about it, even though the
Razer Tarantula only has four it still gets the job done, so kudos on
that.

On
the backside I also noticed several orifices. I was actually able to
see sunlight right through these slits. Perhaps they are drainage holes
for gamers who tend to spill their drinks on their keyboard :). The
Media Keys without any drivers only allow you to adjust the volume and
mute sound. Every other key doesn’t work unless you install the Razer
Tarantula Drivers. Upon hooking up all cables and installing the
software I rebooted and was greeted with the mesmerizing blue Razer
logo as it pulsated back and forth. It’s a nice touch that you’ll
appreciate at first, but it’s pure eye candy and offers no additional
functionality. If you have a matching Razer DeathAdder you’ll love the
matching scheme. You’ll notice the array of additional keys and the
controversial BattleDock™.

{mospagebreak title=Features}

Gamers
either prefer a keyboard filled to the brim with features or one with
the bare minimum of essentials. The Razer Tarantula doesn’t truly fit
either category. The long list of specifications may make you think
otherwise, but when you tear through the marketing you’ll find the
Razer Tarantula, a high-end keyboard, has no auxiliary LCD display nor
does the keyboard completely light up. Some may scoff at the idea of
adding another useless feature, but if keyboards that cost less then
half of what the Razer Tarantula costs have built-in lighting, then
this one hundred dollar keyboard should too. I am disappointed that
Razer chose to incorporate the BattleDock™ as a way to encourage gamers who need the backlight to purchase a separate
accessory. I understand no one is forcing anyone to buy additional
products, but you must admit the entire practice is a bit sly. I fully
comprehend that the physical space inside of the keyboard would have
made it impossible to also add backlighting, but you are going to lose
customers because you’re missing this key feature. Let’s be real; who
really wants to connect a web cam to their keyboard so people can stare
at them while playing a game? Perhaps I am incorrect in this assumption
but Razer has not released the aforementioned accessories as of yet to
test this out. We will conduct a follow-up review when they finally hit
store shelves, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Before truly testing the software I gave Razer Drivers a quick run and
noticed that the macro buttons failed to function. No matter how simple
the button combination, the macro keys wouldn’t work. I uninstalled the
2.10 drivers and installed the beta 2.10b drivers. All my frustrations
and problems disappeared. I won’t go into the level of anger I felt
while trying to figure out what was wrong, but you can imagine my
relief when I performed a factory reset and reinstalled everything. You’ll notice the Razer icon in your system tray when you reboot - it launches the Razer Configurator (you can disable the icon by the way, you neat freaks). The software GUI looks great but is sorely
lacking a re-sizeable window. The keyboard image is a bit too small
even when using a resolution of 1280 x 1024, so users of even larger
resolutions will suffer through several additional squinting episodes
without a doubt. As you glide your cursor over the keytop you’ll note
that the keys highlight green and are clickable. Here you can customize
whether or not you’d like to make a standard key function as another
standard key. You cannot use these keys to bind macros. The usefulness
of this feature is questionable but if you encounter a rare game that
doesn’t allow for key customization then voilà.

As I navigated the menus I noticed a large amount of lag as I edited,
saved and loaded profiles. Whenever I exited and restarted the keyboard
software I would have to wait a few seconds, sometimes more for the
software to initialize. This can get a bit annoying, but you’ll just
have to get used to taking your time editing your profile
unfortunately. Although the box says the keyboard supports one hundred
profiles, you only have a capacity of five available on the keyboard.
The problem is that these five profiles don’t allow for the full
customization that the other ninety-five do. The other profiles, which
are stored locally on your computer, allow you to automatically switch
between profiles whenever a game is loaded. This is an admittedly cool
feature but I wish it was possible with the keyboard as well. I also
longed for an option to be able to physically type in the .exe filepath
with additional target line commands you’d normally find on game
shortcuts. Sometimes a game won’t have the correct resolution so I must
add the proper x and y screen size in this target line. This is
impossible as you can only point to an .exe and that’s it. The profile
name can only be so long, which stinks because most of the names get
cut off.

Another peculiarity I noticed especially during the writing of this
article was the amount of double-keying that was taking place.
Specifically the Z button (RaZZZZer) is extremely prone to double
keying. This is incredibly
annoying and doesn’t make me feel any better about the technology
inside the device. It’s rather ironic that Razer, having a Z in its
name, had to be constantly edited. Other keys are also prone to this
problem but can’t be replicated as well as the Z key. The keyboard
already has a fair learning curve due to the unique flat design of the
keytop, but having to backtrack and delete randomly inserted extra
letters is a huge pain you shouldn’t have to go through. Understand
that even a five dollar keyboard from the flea market won’t exhibit
this problem, but then again they are nowhere near as advanced as the
Razer Tarantula. Even after the years of research and development the
keyboard still feels rushed with all these annoyances and problems.
Razer is a small company compared to it’s competitors and this product,
being their first keyboard, is bound to have hiccups - but I totally
felt I was beta testing a keyboard that was still months from being
complete.

{mospagebreak title=Troubleshooting}

I attempted to test the macro functionality by binding the L keys to
commonly-used weapons in Counter-Strike: Source. As I setup the auto
profile switch functionality and customized the media keys I once again
encountered the problem where the macro keys wouldn’t work. Before
wasting any more time testing the macro buttons by trying them in-game.
I opened up notepad to see what would happen when I pressed L1, which
was bound to purchase a Desert Eagle. Nothing happened. I switched
profiles carefully and attempted the same procedure with the same
result - nothing. It already stinks that you can’t program macros on
the fly, but it’s a whole ‘nother thing when they simply fail to work.
As you can imagine I revisited my earlier frustration with the
keyboard. From my initial factory reformat and re-installation I had
tested a Pump Shotgun bind and it worked fine. So when it works, it
works. However I can’t tell you how disappointed I am in Razer with
this keyboard. I couldn’t even complete a review properly because of
this bug.

To maximize my time I attempted to retrofit the macro keys with extra
blue buttons that accompanied the keyboard. This revealed two things,
only three LED’s light up five buttons on the either side of the
keyboard. One would assume each key would warrant its own LED but Razer
chose to cut costs. Another problem that irked me to no end was that
whenever I inserted a new blue key into the L2 position, the keyboard
would lock up and cause extremely erratic behavior. My space bar would
suddenly start spouting commands randomly without me even touching the
keyboard! Merely grazing the keytop with my fingertips resulted in
lines of garbled text in notepad. If I attempted to type my name I
would only get three or four letters. This is when I turned to Razer
Customer Support for help in this matter. Thankfully I didn’t have to
jump through hoops to reach them by phone, as I was almost instantly
connected to a live operator.

The lovely young woman on the other line tried to help me as much as
possible, going through every step to determine what could be causing
my problem. I told her that my main concern was to update the firmware
on the keyboard since that might actually fix my problem. I told her
“the problem is, is that your website suggests downloading and
installing the new firmware, yet you don’t actually provide a link to
the firmware.” I was told to stay on the line while she spoke to
engineers on this issue. Minutes later I am told that I would get an
email notifying me of what their status on the issue was. The next
business day Razer magically released the firmware on their website
along with graphical step by step instructions on how install the
firmware. I was impressed. Although it seems rather stupid and
surprising no one has brought this to their attention up until this
point, I was glad I could finally go on with the testing.

Unfortunately I found myself calling Razer again due to the keyboard
being unable to get recognized when attempting to upgrade the firmware.
I was told to uninstall all traces of Razer software on my system and
to plug the keyboard into a different USB slot and try again. This time
around the keyboard was indeed recognized but still failed to perform
the actual update, as I could not proceed past the screen that told me
to unplug the keyboard and reinsert the USB cable while holding the
‘Profile’ button. Keep this in mind: If I had personally purchased this
device at a local brick-and-mortar I would have returned it for a
refund already. I can say this without hesitation. Why should any
customer have to deal with all these issues? From a simple Google
search online I can clearly see that I am not the only one with these
problems, so why should I even bother trying to exchange the product?
I’d ask for credit towards a Logitech G15 instead. Even though that
keyboard doesn’t have the quick response system this keyboard does
(which I can’t even test due to the constant screw-ups) it does have
extra features, a better macro input system, and amazingly, a backlight!

I found myself at a crossroad. In the interest of our readers I can’t
simply give up on the keyboard, since I haven’t even been able to fully
test it yet. The next step was to attain another Razer Tarantula and
hope that I had simply received a defective keyboard. As no one should
ever have to deal with so many issues and still expect to give
additional business to the company ever again. But, this is my personal
issue with Razer, and I still wanted to test everything out. I
attempted to try an exchange because I knew that no such product could
be so defective, I had to have gotten a lemon or a terrible first
generation product. Fast forward months (yes months later) without an
official response from Razer. Frustrated I ran down to my local
computer shop and purchased a new keyboard myself, determined to find
out if the product was crap or not.

{mospagebreak title=New Life & Testing}

As
I removed the new Razer Tarantula from its packaging, I noticed the
addition of a new label. This time around, the keyboard clearly stated
it was the U.S. version. This important sticker lets the user know what
version they have when they install the software. Previously I had to
resort to counting the individual keys to determine what version it
was. Thankfully this is a thing of the past. The most apparent
difference was the fact that the wrist rest was no longer composed of
the same material as the rest of the keyboard. Razer no doubt heard the
complaints of the keyboard getting obnoxiously dirty, so they replaced
it with a matte textured surface that shows hardly any skin oils or
palm prints. Of course the rest of the keyboard is still as prone to
dust as ever, but this fix definitely helped the keyboard keep its
clean look even through intense gaming sessions.

The best part of this was the fact that the keyboard no longer
exhibited any problems whatsoever! All the keys and macro buttons
worked fine. The software suffered no failures and whenever I
configured any program to respond to the media controls they worked
perfectly. Although the software still suffered the irritating delay
and the USB hub still wouldn’t work with my flash drives, I was
ecstatic and relieved to finally use a keyboard that suffered no double
and triple keying. I could finally go on with my proper review. It’s
unfortunate that the first impressions with the keyboard were as awful
as they were, but regardless the determination to complete the review
was still there.

When testing the keyboard with any FPS game I found the keyboard
responded as well as any other keyboard I had used. Herein lies the
problem, at no point while gaming with this keyboard could I feel a
significant and immediate difference between it and my normal day to
day keyboard - a Logitech Media Elite keyboard. Every keystroke
registered just as fine as with any other one. When attempting to press
multiple buttons to try and get the keyboard to lock up I simply
couldn’t. I tried moving forward and backward in a circle strafe
maneuver while reloading and holding my walk key all at the same time
and the Razer Tarantula performed perfectly. Not that it did it any
better than my regular keyboard, but nonetheless it worked fine. When
it came to racing games like Need for Speed Carbon and FlatOut 2, the
keyboard worked just as fine as platforming did in Ultimate Spiderman.
There were numerous other games tested throughout our time with the
keyboard, and all of them performed well and exhibited no
irregularities. The thing is, is that it did its job just as well as
any other keyboard on the block. It didn’t help me frag faster or
perform complex moves I couldn’t already do.

Think about this: in FPS games like Counter-Strike: Source & 1.6,
how often do you have to perform a move so ridiculous that you can’t do
it with your own keyboard already? Do you really need an über mega
expensive keyboard so you can wait for hours at bomb site B while T’s
rush tunnels? Most of the time you’re already set and ready for anyone
foolish enough to stand in front of your crosshairs by just standing
there. What does this keyboard offer that others don’t? Minimized lag
and increased response time? Maybe. Honestly though, if I couldn’t tell
the difference and I was looking
for this increased performance, imagine giving the keyboard to someone
in a blind test without mentioning it to them. Would they ever mention
the keyboard responded faster, or made them better? Probably not. Even
testing with games like Oblivion and GuildWars showed no noticeable
signs of improvement.

{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}
The
Razer Tarantula is an exceptional keyboard. Competitive play demands a
lot out of the player and his or her hardware, and with our extended
testing period we found the keyboard to stand up to the rigors of
transportation and daily heavy use without a flinch. The features, for
the most part, are useful, but that coupled with the fact that the
keyboard doesn’t offer any perceptible increase in transmission speed
to the average gamer; what is the point in spending this much money for
a keyboard? I’m aware of the steps taken by Razer to make sure all the
under-the-hood engineering is the best money can buy. Unfortunately the
Razer Tarantula is prone to the same problems Microsoft’s Windows Vista
has currently. No one can perceive any difference, but it sure looks
pretty. That is exactly how I feel about this Razer Keyboard. I
absolutely love the looks, but would I personally spend this much money
on a keyboard? The simple answer is no. Regardless of how well the
macro buttons work, the Logitech G15 still does it better, so MMO
players would be better suited to that keyboard instead of this one.
Heck, that keyboard has been out forever and it still has a backlit
keytop and an auxiliary LCD display. Even though you may not need all
that, you’ll find at least one function you particularly love about it.
The Razer Tarantula by itself is something you’re going to really,
really want in order to justify your purchase.

Pros

+ Extremely attractive and stylish keyboard (subjective)
+ Grips any desk surface extremely well
+ Headphone and Microphone jacks a nice touch
+ Switching profiles a snap
+ Great durability, survived plenty of drops
+ Macro buttons function as-advertised
+ Excellent non-gaming performance and neat picture and media controls
+ Friendly customer service

Cons

- Price! Terrible value keyboard.
- Initial learning curve
- Gets dirty instantly
- No back-lighting on all keys
- USB hub useless with flash drives
- BattleDock™ is a complete gimmick
- Configuration software needs work
- Layout semi-prone to typing mistakes
- Play button doesn’t function as a Pause button in Winamp
- Macro buttons aren’t as good as the competition

Rating
7.5 out of 10

The
Razer Tarantula is an excellent keyboard…just like any other
keyboard. Besides the Razer Tarantula’s stunning aesthetics there
really isn’t much else it offers. Just like any other keyboard out
there it was able to handle the most intense and grueling gaming
sessions very well. The inherent design of the Razer Profile system
will alienate some, but the most glaring aspect of this keyboard is the
poor value gamers are presented with. I tried my damn hardest to try
and feel if the keyboard really offered any enhanced response over
other keyboards I’ve used, and honestly I couldn’t tell a difference.
Simply put, the Razer Tarantula functions like a 10 out of 10 but the
cost is way too high for too little features. It is a controversial
stance to take since the product itself performs well, but I feel strongly that for $99 I haven’t received the value for my money.